Bernie madoff’s unethical behavior affected ______.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

This book is dedicated to Geriel, whose integrity is constant.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Ethical Perspectives and Practices

2nd Edition

Edited by Steve May The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Case studies in organizational communication : ethical perspectives and practices / Steve May, editor. — 2nd ed.

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ISBN 978-1-4129-8309-9 (pbk. : acid-free paper)

1. Communication in organizations—Case studies. 2. Communication in organizations—Moral and ethical aspects. I. May, Steve (Steve Kent), 1961-

HD30.3.C37155 2013

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Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction: Ethical Perspectives and Practices 1 Steve May

Part I: Alignment 33

Case Study 1. Ethical Dilemmas in the Financial Industry 35 Katherine Russell, Megan Dortch, Rachel Gordon, and Charles Conrad Case Study 2. The Ethics of the “Family Friendly” Organization:

The Challenge of Policy Inclusiveness 49 Caryn E. Medved and David R. Novak Case Study 3. Managing the Ethical Implications of the Big Box: The Walmart Effect 59 Edward C. Brewer Case Study 4. Just Window Dressing? The Gap (RED) Campaign 73 Michelle Amazeen

Part II: Dialogic Communication 85

Case Study 5. Ethical Contradictions and E-Mail Communication at Enron Corporation 87 Anna Turnage and Joann Keyton Case Study 6. Toyota—Oh, What a Feeling, or Oh, What a Mess?

Ethics at the Intersection of Industry, Government, and Publics 99 Rebecca J. Meisenbach and Sarah B. Feldner Case Study 7. Sanlu’s Milk Contamination Crisis: Organizational Communication

in Conflicting Cultural, Economic, and Ethical Context 111 Shari R. Veil and Aimei Yang Case Study 8: What About the People in the “People’s Car”?

Tata Motors Limited and the Nano Controversy 119 Rahul Mitra

Part III: Participation 129

Case Study 9. Resistance and Belonging: The Chicago Blackhawks and the 2010 Chicago Annual Pride Parade 131

Dean E. Mundy Case Study 10. Is Agriculture Spinning Out of Control? A Case Study of Factory Farms in Ohio:

Environmental Communication, News Frames, and Social Justice 143 Jeanette Wenig Drake Case Study 11. Ethical Storm or Model Workplace? 157 Joann Keyton, Paula Cano, Teresa L. Clounch, Carl E. Fischer,

Catherine Howard, and Sarah S. Topp Case Study 12. Gaming the System: Ethical Challenges in Innovative Organizations 169 Natalie Nelson-Marsh

Part IV: Transparency 181

Case Study 13. Reward, Identity, and Autonomy: Ethical Issues in College Athletics 183 John Llewellyn Case Study 14. The Case of Wyeth, DesignWrite, and Premarin: The Ethics of

Ghostwriting Medical Journal Articles 197 Alexander Lyon and Mark Ricci

Case Study 15. Fired Over Facebook: Issues of Employee Monitoring and Personal Privacy on Social Media Websites 207

Loril M. Gossett Case Study 16. Daimler’s Bribery Case 219 Roxana Maiorescu

Part V: Accountability 231

Case Study 17. The Deepwater Horizon Disaster: Challenges in Ethical Decision Making 233 Elaine M. Brown Case Study 18. Outsourcing U.S. Intelligence 247 Hamilton Bean Case Study 19. Silence in the Turmoil of Crisis: Peanut Corporation of America’s

Response to Its Sweeping Salmonella Outbreak 261 Alyssa Grace Millner and Timothy L. Sellnow Case Study 20. Patrolling the Ethical Borders of Compassion and Enforcement 271 Kendra Dyanne Rivera and Sarah J. Tracy

Part VI: Courage 283

Case Study 21. Google’s Dilemma in China 285 Jane Stuart Baker and Lu Tang Case Study 22. Speaking Up Is Not an Easy Choice: Boat Rocking as Ethical Dilemma 295 Ryan S. Bisel and Joann Keyton Case Study 23. The Aftermath of Scandal: Picking Up the Pieces of a Shattered Identity 305 Elizabeth A. Williams

Afterword: Casework and Communication About Ethics: Toward a Broader Perspective on Our Lives, Our Careers, Our Happiness, and Our Common Future 315

George Cheney

Author Index 323

Subject Index 331

About the Editor 347

About the Contributors 349

List of Figures and Tables

Table 1.1 Ethical Tensions and Ethical Perspectives 20

Table 3.1 The Impact of Walmart 60

Table 6.1 Toyota Recall Timeline: Some Key Dates 100

Figure 11.1 Mitsubishi Timeline 161

Table 14.1 Publication Program Budget 200

Table 22.1 E-Mail Exchange Among Jan (Intake Nurse), Lisa, and Claire (Immediate Supervisors) With Tina (Executive Director) Copied in the First Message 297

ix

xi

Preface

I first considered editing a case study book on organizational ethics nearly a decade ago. As an instructor of organizational communication, I was frustrated by two features that were lacking in most textbooks in the field. First, I found that many of the primary textbooks in organizational communication included few, if any, case studies. By contrast, Business and Management programs had a long and successful history with case-based teaching and, as a result, cases were widely available. Yet, they did not necessarily offer the range and variety of perspectives I wanted my students to learn.

Although I had developed many of my own cases over the years, including a semester- long consulting case, I wondered why there was such a lack of cases in organizational communication textbooks. Most textbooks included discussion questions and even the occasional homework or fieldwork assignment, but these features never provided the extensive application of organizational theory that in-depth cases provided for my stu- dents. When cases were included in textbooks, they were typically short and general in their description of organizational phenomena. Until recently, there was even a lack of supplemental case study books to use in introductory or advanced organizational com- munication courses. I wanted more for my students.

Second, it also became clear that few, if any, textbooks included an extensive discussion of organizational ethics. Given the range and scope of organizational misconduct over the past several decades, it struck me as a glaring omission in our teaching. Based on conversa- tions with other colleagues around the world, I knew that many instructors were, at least implicitly, discussing organizational ethics in their classrooms. But I found that many were reluctant to explicitly identify organizational ethics as an issue in their courses. Textbooks were not much help. When they included ethics, it was often relegated to a concluding chapter. Business ethics books have been available for years, but they seemed to define “organizations” and communication very narrowly. For example, rarely were nonprofit organizations, government agencies, universities, churches, or other collectives discussed in them. In addition, they often included classic, historical cases of ethics rather than recent emerging ethical issues most relevant to today’s students.

The confluence of these two pedagogical frustrations was further set in motion with the series of organizational scandals (e.g., Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, WorldCom) that have received such attention in the past decade. For this second edition, they have been further compounded by the ethical misconduct in the financial sector that has produced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. For years, my former students had contacted me about their own personal ethical dilemmas in organizations, but now my current students were asking important but challenging questions: What went wrong with

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONxii

these organizations? Why? How common are such unethical practices in organizations? Is this a new phenomenon? What should I do if I belong to an organization that engages in unethical behavior? What if I observe a boss or coworker engaging in such behavior? What changes are necessary in order to improve the ethical conduct of organizations and the people in them? What can I do to help?

Their questions led to informative, instructive, and wide-ranging discussions of orga- nizations and ethics, but I wanted a framework for discussing ethical issues with them in both a theoretical and a pragmatic way. This book, then, is an attempt to focus and structure a meaningful and productive dialogue about organizational ethics with students. It is designed to integrate ethical theory and practice in order to strengthen students’ ethi- cal awareness, judgment, and action in organizations by exploring ethical dilemmas in a diverse range of cases. For this, the second edition of the book, the need to improve our ethical behavior in organizations seems even more pronounced.

USES FOR THE BOOK

The book may be used in a variety of ways. Ideally, its availability will prompt some instructors to begin teaching courses on organizational ethics. In such courses, it may be used as a primary textbook. Or it may be used as a supplemental text for an introductory or advanced course in organizational communication. The book will serve as an excellent companion to a primary textbook in order to bring ethics to the foreground of students’ attention. As such, the book not only includes discussions of ethical perspectives and practices but the case studies also cover a range of topics typical in many organizational communication courses such as leadership, teamwork, organizational culture, work– family balance, gender, new technologies, organizational change, crisis communica- tion, decision making, power/resistance, and conflict, as well as emerging topics such as telecommuting, offshoring, and social media, among others. In addition, instructors will notice that many of the cases can be easily applied to common theories of organizational communication such as classical management, human relations, systems theory, critical theory, and postmodern theory.

WHY TEACH ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS?

This ethics case study book is based on the belief that organizational theory and practice have become increasingly wide ranging and diverse in the past two decades. Similar to the emergence of new, diverse theories to understand organizations, organizations them- selves are growing more and more complex. Their size, mission, function, structure, and processes all seem increasingly fluid as organizations become more “emergent” and adapt- able. As a result, books on organizational dynamics cannot necessarily present singular, simplistic explanations of “the way organizations are.” Rather, they must provide students with a range of organizational examples that best approximate the current and future evo- lution of organizations—and the practices among and between them.

Preface xiii

One of the most recent shifts in organizations is a renewed interest in ethics, partly in response to recent scandals but also in response to the desire to rethink the role of organi- zations in our lives. Members of organizations are asking themselves the following ques- tions: What are our mission, vision, and goals? What do we value? What principles should guide our behavior with our multiple stakeholders? No longer is it accepted wisdom that “business ethics” is a contradiction in terms. Instead, questions of ethics are being taken seriously by many organizations around the world, particularly now that executives and boards of directors have realized that ethics may actually enhance individual and organi- zational performance. Rather than being viewed as merely a compliance or crisis issue, ethics is now seen as part of the bottom line.

The intent of this book, then, is to raise students’ awareness regarding ethics and to provide them with the tools to evaluate situations and conduct themselves ethically. It introduces students to a broad, yet context-specific range of ethics-oriented issues in organizations that will supplement and extend their understanding of organizational communication. The book is based on the belief that students are best engaged when they can directly address the challenges and opportunities they will encounter in their own organizational lives. Often these challenges and opportunities converge around ethical dilemmas that workers experience, as they seek to negotiate their interests with those of their organization.

As a pedagogical tool, this book is designed to encourage students’ critical thinking skills about ethics through analysis, reflection, and dialogue. Organizational ethics cases do not present easy, linear answers to organizational problems and, as a result, students will learn to explore complex, contextual, and conflicted questions about organizational life in ways that integrate theory and practice. A primary purpose of the book, then, is to further develop students’ understanding of organizations by stimulating analysis and discussion of specific organizational practices that enable or constrain ethical action, thereby provok- ing multiple alternatives or solutions that are made more accessible to them. Additional features of the book include the following:

• An introductory chapter that explores multiple perspectives of ethics

• An innovative discussion of the most common practices of ethical organizations

• Timely case studies that examine a range of ethical dilemmas in diverse organizations

• Discussion questions at the end of each case study to prompt dialogue regarding the opportunities for, and challenges of, ethical behavior in today’s organizations

• An afterword that raises new, challenging questions for ethical behavior in today’s organizations

WHY USE CASE STUDIES?

All too often I have overheard students in the buildings and on the sidewalks of universi- ties describing courses in the following fashion: “It’s a theory course” or “It’s a practical course.” On the one hand, students are dissatisfied when courses belabor what is common sense. On the other hand, they are even more dissatisfied when courses have no clear

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONxiv

bearing on everyday life. One of the ways to bridge this dichotomy is to recognize that understanding is the joint product of theory and common sense. As Karl Weick (1987) aptly explained, “Theory and research should focus on what people routinely overlook when they apply common sense. Theory should not be redundant with common sense; it should remind people of what they forget” (p.106).

Ideally, then, this book should combine theory and practice as it relates to organiza- tional ethics. My assumption is that the two are mutually dependent. For instance, we all use implicit theories of the world around us to guide our behaviors. When those theories do not seem applicable to everyday life, then we adjust them accordingly. The same should hold true for the theories and practice of organizational ethics. Through this book, students will examine various theories of organizational ethics. Yet each ethical perspective should also be judged according to its applicability to the cases in this book. By studying these spe- cific organizational cases, students should develop the critical thinking skills to determine which theories are applicable and which theories are not. They should also gain an appre- ciation for what “works” and what “doesn’t work” in organizations when it comes to ethics.

Yet, this appreciation—and the knowledge that derives from it—cannot simply be told in a lecture. It is based on doing. According to Thomas Donaldson, the “case method,” as it is often called, builds on the Socratic method of teaching, which involves the active involvement of students who explore, question, and discover in the give and take process with an instructor and fellow students.

In my teaching career, I have found that one of the primary teaching challenges is to provide students with concrete, context-specific knowledge that will supplement their past work experiences, which vary widely from student to student. Many college students often need supplemental materials that ground their theoretical understanding in a practical understanding of organizational life. This is particularly true in terms of ethical challenges that students may face once they enter (or reenter) the full-time workforce.

Many instructors draw upon their own research and/or consulting experience to help supplement students’ work experiences. Or they utilize the short, limited case studies that are often found at the end of chapters in textbooks. However, many instructors complain that such cases provide neither the detail nor the full range of organizational opportuni- ties/challenges that will develop the critical thinking skills necessary for students to com- prehend the complexities of organizations. Finally, instructors often question whether a primary text, alone, allows students to confront—in a safe, classroom environment—the ethical dilemmas that many workers face in their careers.

In the future, then, I believe that students will need to understand both the theoretical developments in organizational communication and also how those developments are enacted in ethical organizational practice. This book, then, is designed to address this focus on praxis in a manner that clarifies the rapidly changing organizational environment—as well as the diversity of organizational practices that has followed these changes. In short, students need an explicit mechanism by which they can compare and contrast a growing number of developments in organizations. In addition, students need to understand and appropriately act upon the various ethical dilemmas and challenges they will confront in the workplace. Case studies of ethical and unethical organizational practices are one of the primary means to accomplish these goals.

Preface xv

Through case studies, students and instructors are able to directly assess ethical and unethical decision making in a rich, diverse, and complex manner that moves beyond only theoretical discussions of ethics (e.g., duty, rights, utility, virtue, relationships). In short, this case study book explores “ethics in action” and, as a result, is both theoretical and practical in its focus.

OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK

The Introduction provides the context for organizational ethics and an overview of ethical perspectives and practices. It explores current and past examples of ethical and unethical conduct in organizations. It also introduces students to some of the most important challenges for enhancing the ethics of organizations, as well as a means for analyzing ethical dilemmas they may face in organizations. Finally, the Introduction provides the theoretical foundation for students and is divided into two primary sections: (1) ethical perspectives and (2) ethical practices. The section on ethical perspectives gives students an overview of common ethical theories such as duty, rights, utility, virtue, and relationships. These theories provide one means for students to assess the case studies. Any—or all—of the theories may be applied to each case study, although students may find that one theory is either more prominent or more relevant in a case. The section on ethical practices explores several behaviors that are most common among ethical orga- nizations, including alignment, dialogic communication, participation, transparency, accountability, and courage. Each practice is then applied to both ethical and unethical organizations.

Parts I through VI include 23 case studies that represent a range of organizational types and ethical dilemmas. Cases include not only business but also nonprofit organizations, universities, and government agencies. The cases are organized according to the ethical practices discussed in the Introduction. However, students may find that several of the eth- ical practices may be relevant to each case. As a result, instructors should use the structure of this section only as a preliminary guide for exploring the case studies. For example, the cases could also be discussed according to topic (e.g., leadership, organizational culture, decision making) or according to theory (e.g., classical management, human relations, systems theory). At the least, though, students should also be prepared to discuss each case according to the ethical perspectives (e.g., duty, rights, utility, virtue, relationships).

The book ends with the Afterword, which reminds students why our discourse around ethics matters. It also extends ethics to broader organizational and cultural issues and pro- poses a revised ethical theory. Finally, it offers several alternative directions for students interested in further pursuing organizational ethics.

My hope is that the book will stimulate not only dialogue about but also action on issues of organizational ethics. The recent scandals have brought public attention to the practices of both unethical and ethical organizations and, as a result, we have a rare opportunity to help our students create organizations of the future that are simultaneously productive and ethical. Whether as employees, citizens, consumers, or stakeholders, our students will hopefully make that difference in their own organizational lives.

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONxvi

BENEFITS OF CASE STUDIES

Case studies are one of the best ways to engage in dialogue about the real, day-to-day ethi- cal dilemmas in organizations. They are also an ideal way to apply theories learned in the classroom, whether they are ethical theories or organizational theories (e.g., see Donaldson & Gini, 1996; Keyton & Schockley-Zalaback, 2004; Sypher, 1997). This case studies book is based on the assumption that you need to not only understand the theoretical develop- ments in organizational studies but you also should know how they are enacted in ethical organizational practice.

This book, then, is designed to address this focus on praxis in a manner that clarifies the rapidly changing organizational environment—as well as the diversity of organizational practices that has followed these changes. In short, you need an explicit mechanism by which you can compare and contrast a growing number of developments in organizations. In addition, you will need to be prepared to understand and appropriately act upon the various ethical dilemmas and challenges you may confront in your organizational lives. Case studies of ethical and unethical organizational practices are one of the primary means to accomplish these goals.

Case studies, in general, offer several benefits:

• Case studies provide an opportunity to explore the real-world functioning of organizations in context.

• Case studies stimulate reflection on others’ actions.

• Case studies provide exemplars of appropriate and inappropriate, productive and unproductive, useful and irrelevant behaviors.

• Case studies prompt lively discussion regarding alternative courses of action.

• Case studies provide an opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations.

• Case studies serve as an impetus for future action.

More specifically, the case studies in this book may also be used to develop skills in these primary areas:

• Ethical engagement—You should develop the desire to pursue ethical issues in greater detail and establish your own independent thinking about ethics.

• Ethical reasoning and decision-making—You should develop greater confidence in your judgments and in your ability to understand and appreciate others’ points of view regarding ethics.

• Ethical practice—You should develop the ability to respond to and proactively address ethical challenges that may arise in your life.

Case studies, then, should increase your motivation and interest in ethical issues, should improve your analytical and critical thinking skills around ethical challenges, and should provide you with a foundation for making organizations more ethical.

Preface xvii

CASE STUDIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS

My hope is that this book will motivate you to think more critically about organizational ethics in your own life and also in the lives of others. More specifically, the book will (1) introduce you to a range of ethical theories based on duty, rights, utility, virtue, and relationships and (2) explore case studies of organizations that either enable or constrain common elements of ethical practice such as alignment, dialogic communication, partici- pation, transparency, accountability, and courage.

One of the reasons I was motivated to edit this volume is because many organizational case study books tend to be both atheoretical and ahistorical in their focus and typically marginalize ethics. By contrast, this book seeks to conceptualize and historicize ethics- oriented cases by (1) providing a theoretical foundation of ethical perspectives that can be applied to them, (2) identifying sets of ethical practices that might serve as examples for future organizational behavior, and (3) drawing upon their relationship to other cases (e.g., within an industry, a nation-state, a profession) within a particular period of time. The contributors to the book were encouraged to utilize their own scholarly strengths and expertise to develop fuller, richer cases, while also supplementing their expertise with additional historical and current resources. As such, the cases should be seen merely as a starting point for a more thorough and complex understanding of the cases themselves— and others that may be related to them by topic, issue, ethical perspective, or practice.

The cases in this volume were selected because they focus on organizations that have confronted challenging ethical dilemmas and, as a result, have acted ethically or unethi- cally in response to them. That is, the cases in the book represent a full range of organi- zational practices, from overt violations of the law to exemplars of responsible behavior. Each case, however, is written to direct you to ethical dilemmas that present tensions, con- tradictions, challenges, and/or opportunities for the organization and others that it affects. You will also notice that, in contrast to some other case study books, these cases are about real—rather than hypothetical—organizations. I believe it is important for such organiza- tions to be included in a case study book, first to present you with a realistic account of organizational life and second to hold unethical organizations accountable and to praise ethical organizations.

As you will see when you read the cases, contributors were asked to define organization broadly to include not only businesses but also other types of organizations (e.g., educa- tional institutions, religious institutions, political organizations, nonprofit organizations) and organizing, in general. This is in stark contrast to most business ethics case study books that focus exclusively on corporations. Contributors were also encouraged to write cases that examined broader cultural constructions of work (e.g., work and identity, work– family balance, welfare-to-work programs, health care and work, globalization) that are so relevant to our everyday lives. The book, then, not only explores ethical issues within organizations but also within the social, political, economic, ideological, and technological contexts that affect, and are affected by, organizations.

Each case also examines a unique dimension of organizational communication. Some cases focus on the communication response of organizations after a product or service has failed. Other cases in the book explore the communication strategies of leaders who have

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONxviii

produced ethical organizations. Or, in some cases, communication is discussed as a means to “frame” organizational decisions. Still others explore how gender, race, and family are constructed in and through communication within organizations.

You will also notice that a variety of sources were used in constructing these cases about organizational ethics, including observations, interviews, questionnaires, and documents (e.g., company documents, media coverage, legal materials, legislative hearings, profes- sional association studies/reports). As a result, some cases are organized chronologically to follow a timeline of events while others are structured in a narrative form.

Regardless of the structure of each case, though, you should first identify the ethical dilemmas that are raised in the case. Once you have identified the ethical dilemmas, use the ethical perspectives and practices in combination with outside resource materials to fully understand, appreciate, and discuss their complexities. You should be able to under- stand the context of the case, the evolution of the ethical dilemmas, and the key actors fac- ing them. Finally, as you develop your own opinions about the cases, be sure to consider alternative views that may be presented by your instructor or by other students. Doing so strengthens your “ethical agility” and better prepares you for the variety of ethical dilem- mas you may confront in the future.

Although I will not recount all of the cases here, you will find a wide array of organiza- tions and ethical issues in this volume. Here are some of the cases:

• Walmart—The case examines criticisms of the company that its economic impact “limits the ability of local businesses to survive.” The case study also examines how Walmart has responded to charges that it negatively affects local businesses.

• British Petroleum (BP)—The case examines the range of decisions that led to the country’s largest oil spill that damaged not only natural resources in southern states but also the livelihood of many workers there.

• Mitsubishi—The case addresses a class action sexual discrimination lawsuit by several female employees of the company and explores their claims, as well as the company and union responses to them.

• Aon Hewitt—The case considers the degree to which single and married employees with families should be treated similarly or differently.

• Enron—The case explores the ways in which overidentification of employees can cause them to overlook, if not misrepresent, unethical behavior in an organization.

• Toyota—The case discusses how Toyota sought to manage a product recall crisis in ways that maintained its reputation for safe vehicles.

• Google—The case explores the extent to which Google negotiated policies with the Chinese government that allowed broader access to users’ data and content.

• College Athletics and Integrity—The case examines scandals and fraud in several uni- versity athletic departments that have increasingly focused on the financial benefits of sports programs at the expense of academic integrity.

Preface xix

• Wyeth—The case discusses how human health can be negatively affected when a pharmaceutical company ghostwrites articles for prestigious medical journals, with- out the general knowledge of physicians and patients.

As students of organizations, it is particularly important that you be able to first identify current trends regarding ethics and then, second, to intervene in the emergence, develop- ment, and acceptance (or rejection) of those trends. The case studies should help you in that process. Before we move to the cases themselves, though, it is important for you to have some additional background information regarding a range of ethical perspectives and ethical practices. The Introduction will provide that theoretical and practical founda- tion for you to thoroughly explore the case studies. The Introduction should give you the tools to understand, critique, and apply theoretical and practical material to the cases and, ultimately, to consider alternative, ethical futures for organizations.

REFERENCES

Donaldson, T., & Gini, A. (Eds.). (1996). Case studies in business ethics (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Keyton, J., & Schockley-Zalaback, P. (Eds.). (2004). Case studies for organizational communication: Understanding communication processes. Los Angeles: Roxbury.

Sypher, B. D. (Ed.). (1997). Case studies in organizational communication 2: Perspectives in contemporary work life. New York: Guilford Press.

Weick, K. E. (1987). Theorizing about organizational communication. In F. M. Jablin, L. L. Putnam, K. H. Roberts, & L. W. Porter (Eds.), Handbook of organizational communication: An inter- disciplinary perspective (pp. 97–122). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Acknowledgments

As in the case of all scholarly endeavors, this book could not have been completed without the guidance, assistance, and support of numerous other individuals. So although I take full responsibility for any of the limitations of the book, I also recognize that its strengths are the culmination of many conversations with friends, family, colleagues, and students over the course of several years.

At the least, the book is a creative collaboration that required the contributions of many colleagues who produced the cases contained in it. Although I will not name each of the case authors here, I do want to acknowledge their efforts to produce cases that, hope- fully, will stimulate students’ ethical awareness, judgment, and decision making. The case authors’ own varied interests and perspectives have helped represent an incredibly wide- ranging and diverse set of ethical dilemmas in today’s organizations.

I am also grateful for the strong support of SAGE in the original development of this book. In particular, I want to thank Todd Armstrong, senior acquisitions editor, for his initial encouragement, insight, patience, and good humor in the development of the first edition. He is, in many respects, the ideal editor. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with Matthew Byrnie on the changes that have been made in this second edition. Nathan Davidson, associate editor, helped guide the book’s progress throughout the revision pro- cess. I also want to thank Elizabeth Borders, editorial assistant, for her professionalism, promptness, and thoroughness throughout the process. In addition, Catherine Chilton and Megan Markanich were detailed and responsive in their work on the final stages of the volume.

The early stages of the book emerged while I served as a leadership fellow at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ruel Tyson’s direction of the institute and his advocacy of ethical academic leadership served as a motivator to follow through with the project. In addition, the leadership fellows offered continual encouragement and support regarding the relevance and the significance of the book. A year later, I served as an ethics fellow at the institute, supported by the direction of Martha Crunkleton. My participation in that program further strengthened the intellectual and theoretical foundations of the book. I would like to acknowledge the ethics fellows for their engagement with the project and for their feedback regarding the teaching of case study on organizational ethics.

I would also like to thank the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University for ongo- ing opportunities to both discuss organizational ethics and to put theory and research into action through ethics training in a range of organizations. I am especially grateful to Alysson Satterlund, who first established my connection to Kenan and who championed

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CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONxxii

my work to them. Elizabeth Kiss graciously accepted my offer to make a praxis-oriented contribution by entering into an already productive and thought-provoking dialogue with members of the institute. Noah Pickus has extended and expanded that role in a manner that continues to stretch and challenge those of us committed to ethical organizational change. Finally, members of the Ethics at Work team—John Hawkins, Deborah Ross, Catherine LeBlanc, Amy Podurgal, Kathy Spitz, Morela Hernandez, and Doris Jordan—have played an integral role in my own ethical learning and development as we tested theory “in the field.” I would like to acknowledge that the ethical practices in the book are based not only on my own research and teaching notes but also on a series of conversations with my friends and colleagues at Kenan.

Similarly, many students in my Organizational Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility courses offered feedback on the first two chapters, as well as the cases themselves. Their willingness to assist me and their insightful suggestions consistently affirmed my faith in public higher education. In particular, I would like to thank Stephanie Evans, who gathered and synthesized much of the material that became the foundation for the discussion of ethical perspectives. Her dedication and professionalism helped move the project forward.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge, albeit briefly, my own teachers—each of whom motivated my interest in producing organizations that are not only productive but that are also ethical. Those ideas first emerged at Purdue University under the guidance of Linda Putnam, Cynthia Stohl, Phil Tompkins, and Jennifer Slack. Later, my interest and expertise in the topic were further developed and honed at the University of Utah through the intellectual support of Len Hawes, Mary Strine, Connie Bullis, Buddy Goodall, and Jim Anderson. At each of my academic homes, I was fortunate to have many thoughtful and thought-provoking mentors. I can only hope that I have motivated my own students in the same manner.

My closest colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have always provided an enriching scholarly community that fosters intellectual engagement, colle- giality, and mutual respect. I am particularly indebted to Bill Balthrop, whose leadership of the Department of Communication Studies combined wisdom, wit, and commitment. Bill and other faculty members there have created a context for both intellectual curiosity and rigor. My colleagues in organizational communication have also been long-standing sources of ideas and support. Ted Zorn, now at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, has been my model editor. He taught me the art and grace of editing while I served as the forum editor under his guidance as the editor of Management Communication Quarterly. His thoroughness, sense of humor, integrity, and compassion for authors and their work is an ethical template in its own respect. Dennis Mumby, Patricia Parker, and Sarah Dempsey, always generous with their time and kind with their words, have been wonderful colleagues who have been willing to further stimulate and stretch my thinking.

Finally, and most importantly, I could not have completed this book without the enthu- siastic and loving support of my family. In so many respects, my parents provided the early and solid ethical foundation for me. They taught me the lessons of hard yet honest work, fairness, and respect. Hopefully, this book will, in some small measure, serve as a testa- ment to their care of our family. My wife, Geriel, has been a steadfast source of support, a sounding board, an analytical guide, a practical problem solver, a tension reliever, and

Acknowledgments xxiii

a loving companion. In addition, her business sense has frequently served as a reality test for my work. She, more than any other person, helped bring this project to its completion. During the final stages of the first edition, our daughter, Arcadia, was born. Her birth has brought me boundless joy and wonder and has provided me with a new and broader sense of perspective. Ultimately, her entry into the world has also produced a sense of urgency and a profound commitment to further strengthen ethical conduct in our “organizational society.” As she has grown during the development of this second edition, the need for ethical engagement of our organizations has only intensified.

SAGE Publications would like to thank the following reviewers:

Rocci Luppicini University of Ottawa

Kristin Froemling Radford University–Radford

Paul E. Madlock Texas A&M International University–Laredo

Ed Brewer Appalachian State University–Boone

1

Introduction Ethical Perspectives and Practices

The business of the modern world, for better or worse, is business. Unless we learn to conduct business in ways that sustain our souls and the life supporting web of nature, our future as a species is dim.

—Peter Barnes , Former President, Working Assets Long Distance (now CREDO Long Distance)

THE CHALLENGE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS

If ethics were easy and straightforward in our organizations, there would be no need for books such as this one. However, this is rarely the case. Ethical decision making and prac- tice are fraught with difficulties and challenges. Ethics often stretches us and moves us to think beyond our own self to consider others: our family, our work group, our organization, our country, our culture. At the least, when we consider our own ethics, we have to ask our- selves these questions: What is my own ethical position or stance? How is that similar to, or different from, others? Will my actions have the intended consequences? What unintended consequences might arise from my actions?

These are challenging questions to ask at a personal level. We must consider what we deem appropriate and inappropriate, acceptable and unacceptable, right and wrong for ourselves—but also in relation to others. At an organizational level, such issues can become complex if not daunting. Given the rise of organizational power and influence, the poten- tial impact of decisions is, in some cases, profound and far reaching. Stan Deetz (1992) reminded us that, by many standards, the business organization has become the central institution in modern society, often eclipsing the state, family, church, and community in power. Organizations pervade modern life by providing personal identity, structuring time and experience, influencing education and knowledge production, and directing news and entertainment. From the moment of our birth to our death, organizations significantly influence our lives in ways that often go unnoticed.

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION2

That is, over time, we have developed naturalized, taken-for-granted ideas about how organizations should function and the role that they should play both in our personal lives and in our culture. One of the goals of this book, then, is to raise your awareness regarding many of our commonsense assumptions about organizations, particularly when it comes to ethics. After you have read this book, I hope that you will have developed the awareness to pursue ethical questions and establish your own views on organizational ethics. A sec- ond goal of the book is to strengthen your ethical reasoning and decision making. It is not enough to be aware of organizational ethics; it also requires strong critical thinking skills to understand ethical situations and possible courses of action. After you have read this book, you will have developed these skills as you learn about ethical theories, in general, and ethical practices, specifically. Hopefully, you will have greater confidence in your own decision making, and you will better understand the decisions of others. Finally, a third goal is to motivate you to respond to—and proactively confront—ethical dilemmas that may arise in your organizational life. Overall, then, it is my hope that, after reading this book, you will believe that “organizational ethics matters” and that you will use your knowledge, skill, and motivation to enhance the ethics of our organizations today—and in the future.

The stakes in organizational decisions can be particularly high: How safe is a particular product or service? Does it have negative effects on its users? How should employees be hired, trained, developed, compensated, and/or fired? How should wealth be developed and distributed? What effect does the accumulation of wealth have upon social, economic, political, and technological disparities with others? How do organizations impact our values, our families, and our communities? Whose definition of ethics is dominant in an increasingly global economy? These questions are certainly not exhaustive, and you may come up with many others that are relevant to you.

Regardless of the question, it is clear that the consequences of organizational actions can be great for all of us. Yet, at the same time, the ethical demands on organizations are neither extraordinary nor excessive, according to Al Gini (2005):

A decent product at a fair price; honesty in advertisements; fair treatment of customers, suppliers, and competitors; a strong sense of responsibility to the communities [they] inhabit and serve; and the production of a reasonable profit for the financial risk-taking of its stockholders and owners. (p. x)

It is worth noting, however, that not all organizations seek to produce a profit for stock- holders and owners. Others are more interested in the social welfare of citizens across the world (Bonbright, 1997; Bornstein, 2004). For example, Ashoka, founded by Bill Drayton, is a nongovernmental organization that operates in 46 countries and has assisted over 1,400 social entrepreneurs interested in improving human rights, education, environmental pro- tection, rural development, health care, and poverty, among others.

It is also important to remember that our “organizational lives” are not separate or distinct from other realms of our lives. Increasingly, it is hard to distinguish between our public and private lives, work and family, labor and leisure (May, 1993). As a result, it is crucial that we keep in mind that organizations are a part of life. They are not silos that function in a vacuum without direct effects on all of us. For better or worse, they are part and parcel of us.

Introduction 3

THE CURRENT STATE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS

In an era of widespread organizational scandals, it is appropriate that we study organi- zational ethics more closely. This edited volume is not the first to explore organizational ethics (Conrad, 2003; Donaldson & Gini, 1996; Malachowski, 2001; Michalos, 1995; Parker, 1998; Peterson & Ferrell, 2005; Seeger, 2002) nor will it be the last (Cheney, Lair, Ritz, & Kendall, 2010). But it is a volume that seeks to capture a unique historical moment as citi- zens have begun to seriously rethink and reevaluate the role of organizations in our lives.

Even a limited list of recent organizational misconduct should be enough to raise concerns:

• Pfizer, the producer of Viagra, Zoloft, and Lipitor, was fined a record $2.3 billion by federal prosecutors for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, mas- sages, and resort junkets. Similarly, Allergan, the maker of Botox, settled for $600 mil- lion on charges that it illegally promoted and sold the drug for unapproved uses.

• Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of $65 billion.

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) won court approval to levy a $550 mil- lion penalty against Goldman Sachs, the largest ever against a Wall Street firm, over claims the bank misled investors in collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages.

• Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges for his role for reporting false financial information, with losses estimated at over $100 billion. Until the Madoff scheme was discovered, it had been the largest accounting scandal in U.S. history.

• Adelphia founder John W. Rigas and his son Timothy Rigas were accused of looting the company and cheating investors out of billions of dollars. Both were convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud, and securities fraud.

• Martha Stewart was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements about her sale of ImClone Systems stock.

• Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former CFO Mark H. Swartz were found guilty on 30 counts of stealing more than $150 million from the company.

• Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio and six other executives were charged with orchestrating a massive financial fraud that concealed the source of billions of dollars in reported revenue. He was convicted on 19 counts of insider trading.

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-assisted entities (GAEs), face scrutiny regarding questionable accounting practices that could place millions of mortgages of U.S. homeowners at risk.

• Several pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, have had to withdraw drugs that have been deemed unsafe for public use. Most were found to have hidden drug-related risks from physicians and the public. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is facing questions that its regulatory control over drug safety has been jeopardized by close relationships with the industry.

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION4

Even this limited list does not include scandals among nonprofit organizations (NPOs), the military, churches, athletic teams, journalists, and the U.S. government. For example, the national director of programs for the Boy Scouts of America was charged with receiv- ing and distributing child pornography. Guards at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have been accused of engaging in physical and mental abuse of prisoners. Congress is currently conducting hearings on steroid use in baseball, although its use appears common in many other sports, as well. Individuals in the Catholic Church were not only aware of child sexual abuse among some of its priests but they also covered it up. Several well-known journal- ists plagiarized articles, and the Bush administration “purchased” favorable reporting from journalists in order to “sell” its programs to the public.

More recently, we have witnessed the meltdown of our global economy as a result of unethical behavior within the financial industry. In the pursuit of greater profit, many of the leaders of U.S. banks, financial service firms, and mortgage lenders, among others, risked not only their own companies (note the failure of Bear Stearns, etc.) but also the homes and livelihood of citizens in the United States and abroad. First identified as a series of poor financial decisions, it has become increasingly obvious that these leaders externalized their financial risks onto others for personal and corporate gain, while not recognizing the potential, systemic, negative impact on the global economy. Their unethical behavior has produced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, with no end in sight.

Given these historical events, reconsidering organizations and their place in our lives affords us the opportunity to even reflect on some of our common beliefs about organi- zations “as we know them”: choice of consumers, the value of market mechanisms, the benefits of free trade, and the desire for ongoing growth and development (Cheney & Frenette, 1993).

Undoubtedly, there is growing, if not renewed, interest in organizational ethics. For a time, the recent scandals intensified the media scrutiny of organizations and their lead- ers. Each new scandal seemed to produce additional clamor for organizational change, with strategies that included improved legal compliance, stronger sentencing penalties for white-collar crime, more rigorous professional codes of conduct, and more stringent government oversight and regulation. The scandals also raised serious questions about our trust in corporate America, in particular (Lorsch, Berlowitz, & Zelleke, 2005), and have produced lawsuits, criminal trials, and legislation (e.g., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act). In several cases, the scandals have produced the decline, if not the destruction, of several well-known organizations—most notably Arthur Andersen.

However, even as I prepare this volume in mid-2011, I wonder whether media coverage of the scandals—and the organizational ethics issues related to them—has begun to wane. Has the public’s interest in organizational ethics already faded? Will the highly visible scan- dals overshadow less overt misconduct, as well as some of the more subtle but substantive ethical questions of today about “market forces,” consumerism, and globalization? Will the recent economic meltdown continue to be viewed as an example of system-wide, unethical behavior, or will it be attributed to “a few bad apples”?

Over the years, attention to such ethical scandals “appears to ebb and flow between the well-publicized, most egregious acts of misbehavior and the mundane, naturalized, and

Introduction 5

often overlooked practices of everyday organizational life” (May & Zorn, 2003, p. 595). Recently, however, several authors have noticed a renewed focus on organizational ethics, among them Lynn Sharp Paine (2003), a noted Harvard professor of business ethics. In her book, Value Shift, Paine explained that ethics has found its way back onto the agenda of organizational leaders. Executives at businesses, for example, have launched ethics programs, mission-driven strategies, values initiatives, and cultural change efforts. In addition, companies have created ethics officers, high-level ethics committees, ethics ombudspersons, codes of ethics, and ethics task forces. Finally, companies have attempted to strengthen their relationships with various stakehold- ers, developing programs on the environment, human rights, work–family balance, corporate volunteerism, community assistance, product safety, customer service, and philanthropy, among others.

This shift in focus has left many observers asking the following questions: What is hap- pening? Why the recent emphasis on ethics? The obvious answer is that organizations have realized that a lack of legal compliance can produce disastrous results, similar to many of the scandals mentioned earlier in this introduction. But organizational scandals alone don’t explain the change. According to Paine (2003), there are several additional reasons for the shift in focus toward ethics among organizational leaders:

• Reasons related to risk management

• Reasons related to organizational functioning

• Reasons related to market positioning

• Reasons related to civic positioning. (p. 7)

In effect, many leaders have learned that ethics improves organizational performance and, ultimately, the bottom line. Still others have decided that it is the right thing to do; they have concluded that organizations should be fair, honest, respectful, responsive, trustworthy, accountable, and responsible, regardless of whether it serves the organiza- tion’s self-interest.

I hope that this edited volume of case studies—and others like it—will produce a visible and sustained recommitment to organizational ethics, as Paine has noted. Although ethi- cal scandals are not unique to our time, the confluence of ethical misconduct in so many different realms and institutions provides a rare opportunity for organizational change. To create such change, though, requires that we delve deeper into the fundamental issues that enable and constrain the opportunities and challenges of creating organizations that are simultaneously productive and ethical, responsive and responsible (see, for example, Ihlen, Bartlett, & May, 2011). What can we learn from past eras of organizational mis- conduct? What, if any, relationship exists between organizational ethics and broader conceptions of ethics in our culture, as a whole? What are the prospects and limitations of changing organizational ethics? To what extent are ethical failures based on individual, group, organizational, or cultural phenomena? This volume is hopefully a first, limited step toward answering some of these questions.

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION6

HAVE WE LEARNED ANYTHING FROM THE PAST?

Occasionally, it can be helpful to consider some of these questions by learning from ethical and unethical behavior of the past. In many respects, the recent organizational scandals may seem somehow different from those of the past. They seem larger, more significant, and of greater consequence. Yet, in fundamental ways, they are similar in that they involve greed, corruption, arrogance, and power. In the 1950s, it was the wealth and power of cor- porations to create domestic oligopolies prior to international competition. In the 1960s, it was the rise of unwieldy and often mammoth conglomerates that expanded without regard to consumers’ needs. Hostile takeovers were the ethical concern of the 1970s. By the late 1980s, figures such as Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken became icons in the insider trading scandals. In the 1990s, executive compensation, downsizing, and the transition to global labor concerned us. The most recent “corporate meltdown,” according to Charles Conrad (2003), was the result of “massive financial and status-related incentives combined with declining external constraints combined to create a fraud-inducing system, which in turn provided organizational actors with ready rationalizations/legitimations of practices that ‘pressed the envelope’ or worse” (p. 16 ). Somehow, each decade seems to have its own ethical crises. Is history repeating itself? Have we learned anything from the past?

Charles Redding, considered by many to be a central figure in modern organizational communication, may help us answer these questions. Back in 1982, he noted that “the pre- ponderance of everyday problems that plague all organizations are either problems that are patently ethical or moral in nature, or they are problems in which deeply embedded ethical issues can be identified” (p. 2). Prominent author Robert Jackall (1983, 1988) argued in his book Moral Mazes that businesses (bureaucracies, in particular) are vast systems of “orga- nized irresponsibility.” Similarly, two social psychologists, Sabini and Silver (1982) claimed that businesses have a “genius for organizing evil.” These comments came at a time when prominent business authors were extolling the importance of ethics and numerous centers and institutes for business ethics were emerging around the United States. One observer even called ethics “the hottest topic in corporate America” (Sarikelle, 1989).

Redding also bemoaned that there seemed to be no sustained interest in organizational ethics. He likened the lack of attention to organizational ethics to “wandering in a lonely desert,” asking the question of any interested observers who might listen: “When will we wake up?” At that time, over two decades ago, Redding explained that he noticed increased talk about the ethical dimensions of organizational life, as managers and executives were attending numerous conferences, seminars, and workshops that focused on ethical prob- lems in organizations. Yet he wondered whether all of the ethical talk was backed up by ethical action.

Redding’s question regarding an ethical “awakening” could be asked today, as well. No doubt, many persons have awakened to issues related to organizational ethics (see, for example, May, Cheney, & Roper, 2007). One can hardly pick up a newspaper or listen to the evening news without some new ethical scandal in the business world. Ethics centers and institutes have proliferated in the last two decades. The conferences and training pro- grams that Redding noted in the early 1980s still continue today and, in many respects, have grown. Yet, organizational scandals—in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sec- tors—appear rampant. This time I hope we will learn from our mistakes and misdeeds.

Introduction 7

ETHICAL DILEMMAS

One of the ways to learn from the past—and also to enhance our ethical action in the future—is to think about the nature of ethical dilemmas that organizations and their members have faced. Throughout my discussion of organizational ethics in this introduc- tion—as well as the remainder of the book—it is important to remember that it is people who make decisions in and about organizations. Organizations don’t make decisions, per se. People do, albeit within the accepted norms and standards of organizations. At one level, then, any book on organizational ethics needs to account for the actions of individu- als. So, although I frequently refer to organizational ethics, it is merely a shorthand way of referring to the numerous individual and collective decisions that are made within and between organizations.

In an accessible and popular book, How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living , Rushworth Kidder (1995) explored the personal dimension of ethical decision making. Each of us faces a multitude of ethical decisions throughout our lifetime, even if they are not readily apparent to us. Those decisions shape our sense of self, as well as others’ sense of us.

Kidder explained, though, that some of our attention to ethics is misdirected. He claimed, for example, that right/wrong ethical dilemmas gain much of the public atten- tion. On the one hand, we denounce persons who have engaged in organizational miscon- duct. On the other hand, we praise the courage and integrity of those persons who have engaged in “right action.” The former are often shunned while the latter are sometimes idolized. But, in the end, right/wrong dilemmas tend to be fairly clear-cut and straightfor- ward. By contrast, Kidder argued that “right/right dilemmas” are much more challenging and merit more attention. Kidder (1995) explained his premise this way: “The really tough choices . . . don’t center on right versus wrong. They center on right versus right. They are genuine dilemmas precisely because each side is firmly rooted in one of our basic core values” (p. 18).

Although any number of right/right dilemmas is possible, Kidder noted that several are most common:

• Justice versus mercy

• Truth versus loyalty

• Individual versus community

• Short-term goods versus long-term goods

According to Kidder, each of the preceding dilemmas—and others like them—pose the most difficult challenge for us since they represent pairs of values, both of which we tend to accept. For example, in organizational terms, should a boss show mercy on an employee who has made a costly blunder, or should the boss punish the employee? When an employee finds out that a significant downsizing is imminent and a friend will be fired, should the employee tell the friend the truth or remain loyal to the company? When an employee conducts a safety study that suggests a product is unsafe for public use, should the employee remain loyal to her/his company by staying silent or should the employee

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION8

inform the public? Should a company executive make a financial decision that will benefit stockholders and employees in the short term but may have a negative impact in the long term? We struggle with such ethical dilemmas because we are torn between two values, both of which seem right, but we are forced to decide between them.

In most cases, we choose the action that is “the nearest right”—the one that best fits our own ethical perspective of the world. As you will see later in this introduction, we may be more or less oriented to duty, rights, utility, virtue, or relationships when it comes to ethics. However, Kidder (1995) also encouraged us to explore whether there is a “third way” that might enact both values, the “trilemma solution”:

Sometimes that middle ground will be the result of a compromise between the two rights, partaking of each side’s expansiveness and surrendering a little of each side’s rigidity. Sometimes, however, it will be an unforeseen and highly creative course of action that comes to light in the heat of the struggle for resolution. (p. 167)

A trilemma solution may be a “compromise between the two rights, partaking of each side’s expansiveness and surrendering a little of each side’s rigidity” (Kidder, 1995, p. 167). Ideally, though, the resolution is not so much a compromise or middle ground position so much as it is a creative means to move beyond the ethical dilemma by appreciating the tension between the two values.

COMMUNICATING ABOUT ETHICS

Since organizations are so “close” to us, it can be challenging to talk about the ethical dilemmas that arise from them. Before we continue further, then, we should explore how we talk about ethics and how ethics is structured within our culture (see, for example, Willmott, 1998).

For example, it is worth considering how ethical issues are communicated in contem- porary life. Are ethical issues framed in a particular way? Are there particular persons or groups who have greater (or lesser) opportunities to speak regarding ethical issues? Are there ethical issues that are rarely, if ever, discussed publicly? That is, are some ethical issues marginalized? How do persons tend to respond to ethical violations of the law or cultural norms and expectations? How do persons who have violated them explain their behavior? Noticing such patterns of discourse should provide you with interesting insights regarding the place of ethics in our culture today.

For anyone interested in constructive conversations regarding organizational ethics, it is important to consider the distinctions between descriptive ethics, normative ethics, and analytical ethics (Goodpaster, 1995). The goal of descriptive ethics is to represent, in a neutral and empirical manner, the “facts” of an ethical situation, as well as the values of the persons and organizations involved. There is no attempt to make an ethical judgment regarding the situation since the emphasis is on attaining accuracy, as best as possible. In effect, the purpose of descriptive ethics is to “map the terrain” of the ethical situation. No personal judgment is presented.

Introduction 9

Normative ethics, by contrast, according to Kitson and Campbell (2001), “seeks to develop and defend judgments of right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice” (p. 11). It involves exploring points of view and presenting one’s position. It introduces this question: Given the situation, what is my ethical judgment about it? As an extension of the first two, analytical ethics is interested in whether an ethical judgment is appropriate, in comparison to other ethical judgments. It functions at a metaethical level by comparing and contrasting different ethical perspectives, decisions, and practices. Therefore, analytical ethics provides the justifications for a normative ethical judgment.

During discussions of ethics-based case studies of organizations, it is important to distinguish the type of statement being made. Am I describing the ethical situation in the case? Am I presenting a normative position or point of view in response to the case? Or am I analytically arguing for a position or point of view in contrast to others? In everyday conversation, it is all too common for us to describe situations in a normative or analyti- cal manner, reflecting our own personal values or biases. However, it can often be a help- ful exercise to bracket our comments in these three steps, beginning with description and moving to defense of a position, based on an evaluation of multiple points of view. However, we should keep in mind that the assumption that we can accurately describe an ethical situation rests on the belief that the factual content can be separated from our values (Willmott, 1998). While descriptive ethics claims to describe “what is,” some crit- ics question whether such an approach actually privileges one way of viewing an ethical situation over another—in effect, presenting what is ultimately a value-laden description of a situation as if it is natural or taken-for-granted. As you discuss these cases with oth- ers, you may find, for example, that what you consider to be clear-cut and factual may be questioned by others.

Using the concepts of descriptive, normative, and analytical ethics as a conversational guide, class discussions of organizational ethics may be conducted around some of the following questions:

• How should organizational ethics be defined? That is, what constitutes responsible and irresponsible action?

• Why should students, owners, employees, consumers, and citizens be interested in organizational ethics?

• What are the prominent meanings and discourses surrounding ethics, in general, and organizational ethics, specifically?

• How has ethics evolved historically?

• What is the relationship between organizational ethics and specific social, political, economic, ideological, and technological conditions?

• How, if at all, has ethics changed the nature of management and organizational com- munication?

• What is/should be the role of ethics in our emerging, global economy?

• How, if at all, has ethics changed organizing processes?

• From your perspective, how do ethics enable and/or constrain today’s organizations?

CASE STUDIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION10

• How might a renewed emphasis on ethics change management and organizational communication in the future?

• How, if at all, has recent attention to ethics affected management practices?

• What are the agendas for research, teaching, and practice that are relevant to persons interested in organizational ethics?

ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES

Over the past two decades, we have seen the historical, social contract between employ- ers and employees change, raising a series of ethical questions regarding the role of orga- nizations—and businesses, in particular—in our culture. In the era of corporate mergers, downsizing, restructuring, offshoring, and temporary work, it is now common to observe that the old social contract, which guaranteed or implied lifetime employment in exchange for employee competence and good behavior, has expired. Taking its place is a new social contract in which employees are sent a mixed message, in which they are expected to work more for less pay and limited employment stability and yet still remain loyal to the company.

This new social contract is the result of multiple cultural forces, including global compe- tition, domestic deregulation, and technological change, as well as executive mismanage- ment and corruption. Regardless of the reasons for the change, however, the impact will be especially profound on management and labor relations in the years ahead. For example, the dramatic changes in the workplace are being blamed for escalating workplace violence, exploding workplace litigation, and growing numbers of employees seeking medical and psychological help for work-related stress.

The range and scope of these organizational changes pose serious questions for persons interested in ethics. Can organizations, in fact, be ethical? If not, what social, political, economic, and technological conditions limit this possibility? If so, what would consti- tute an ethical organization? Do our organizations have a unique ethical responsibility to employees? Customers? Shareholders? Citizens? The environment? What ethical perspec- tives and best practices within organizations might assist us in developing and sustaining ethical organizations? In order to produce a dialogue about these responsibilities and their implications for “managing” a new ethical agenda in organizations, this book includes case studies that are drawn from diverse types of organizations. It is my hope that these diverse readings will further your understanding of the multiple ways that organizations address (or do not address) ethics.

As a means to further stimulate discussion regarding the cases in the book, you will need additional background to raise ethical questions about the cases. The remainder of this introduction explores two primary ethical tensions that are common in many organiza- tions. It also briefly summarizes some of the primary ethical perspectives. Finally, it identi- fies several “best practices” of ethical organizations, providing both positive and negative examples of each organizational practice.

The purpose is not necessarily to provide a comprehensive overview of ethical theory and practice. Several other books (Dienhart, 2000; Donaldson & Werhane, 1999; Gini, 2005; Johannesen, 1996; Shaw & Barry, 2001; Snoeyenbos, Ameder, & Humber, 2001) may

Introduction 11

serve that purpose. Rather, it is to provide you with an additional foundation for analyzing the cases, reflecting on them, and discussing them with your instructor and your fellow students. It is hoped that the result will be your ethical competencies will be improved and that you will be better able to confront and respond to ethical dilemmas that you face in your own organizational life.

ETHICAL TENSIONS

Different ethical perspectives lead to quite different conclusions regarding what constitutes ethical behavior (Cheney, May, & Munshi, 2011). These differences are based on fundamen- tal assumptions about the character of reality, the nature of individuals, and the obliga- tion of individuals to one another (May & Mumby, 2005). The differences in these ethical perspectives may be described as tensions—or oppositions—and can be plotted on axes in order to locate one’s own perspective. These tensions are likely to either enable or con- strain ethical action, and the most commonly noted tensions, according to Anderson and Englehardt (2001) include foundational/situational, individual/community, and essence/ existence. However, we could also consider any number of additional tensions that are found in most organizations such as centralization/decentralization, collaboration/com- petition, control/autonomy, strategies/tactics, specialization/differentiation, and flexibility/ structure, among others.

For our purposes, the two most relevant tensions are (1) foundational/situational and (2) individual/community. Briefly exploring these tensions will allow us to not only apply them to the case studies but it will also enable us to better understand our own ethical assumptions.

Foundational/Situational Tension

The first tension considers whether ethics is foundational or situational. As you read the case studies, you should consider whether you believe that ethical behavior is based on a set of actions that are constant or whether it is based on actions that are context-specific. Foundational—or universal ethics—persists while situational ethics shifts over time.

Foundational ethics suggests that reality is given, self-evident, objective, and neutral while situational ethics views reality as socially constructed, subjective, and interpreted.

If, for example, you were to develop ethics training for an organization from a foun- dational approach, you might argue for a core set of values that the organization and its members must adhere to in order to be ethical. Most likely, these values would be long standing and widely accepted (e.g., telling the truth, respecting others). In my experience, ethics training for organizations often draws on a foundational approach, since it fre- quently focuses on a core set of principles that are applied to every organization, regardless of size, structure, or industry.